Twenty years ago, contemporary Christian music was a cottage industry with annual sales of $85 million, today, sales are up to 4 billion a year.
& that's just the music. Book & merchandising sales assume most of the other 26 billion in revenue reported annually through the marketing of Jesus.
The recording industry globally I think only makes between 35-40 billion. The pornography business, in comparison, hauls in thirteen billion annually.
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:7_9XWIIH450J:www.strang.com/cr/a.php%3FArticleID%3D13131+christianity+book++indus try+growth&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2
While most categories showed stable growth, the Religious category was charted as up 8.1% in 2005 year-to-date, with growth for this year projected at 6.5%. The market is “the (major) growth area in the business,” said senior researcher Albert Greco of The Institute for Publishing Research. Market
growth shows “an unbelievable number of books” being produced.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...44876#continue